Instance grouping guide for a healer
Back to the Instance Grouping Guide The Healer Classes: Priest, Druid, Shaman Nearly every group needs a primary healer. Priests are the most versatile healers, but Druids and Shamans are also generally capable of being primary healers. Paladins can heal, but their heals are generally weaker and they cannot usually uphold the role of primary healer. The primary healer's job is to maintain the health of the rest of the group throughout the instance. Usually in a five-man group there is also a secondary healer, one who has a different main role, but who will switch to healing in difficult situations. As a Healer * Pay attention! A cloth wearer can die in a few seconds if he is attacked, always have your eyes on the party members' health bars. * Don't waste mana on other things than healing, unless you are absolutely sure you won't run out of it. * The most important party member to keep alive is you, the healer. Don't be a hero, you can't heal anyone if dead (unless you're a priest). * The second most important member to keep alive is the tank, he will always take damage, but at a relatively slow and predictable rate. * Your job isn't to keep everyone at full health, it's to keep everyone alive. If at the end, everyone has 2% health, it's better than everyone at 100% and one dead. * This goes TRIPLE for boss fights. Bosses drop beaucoup experience, and nothing is worse than being the one person who was dead at the end of a boss fight and missed the XP from the boss kill. * Be wary of your party members' armour classes in order to know what kind of damage to expect. A cloth user will usualy need to be healed before someone in plate, etc. * Be prepared to instantly heal/shield mages, especialy when they do AoE spells. Their health drops like a stone when beaten. * Try to keep an eye on what's going on around you, not just the party's health bars. That might give you a hint on who will soon need healing and also make sure you keep party members in sight. * If for any reason you are attacked stand stil and let you party know! It is difficult for party members to get the aggro of the mob off you if you keep running. * It's also a good idea to keep an eye behind your back for patrols, since you are usually the one staying furthest behind the others and it might take a while for the tank to realise you are under attack by another group of mobs. * For the sake of all healers involved, please use a macro (maybe have party skills/macros organized all on one quickbar) such as: /cast Holy Light(Rank 3) /s <<< Holy Light on %t >>> :This macro is because someone needs to know when they are neglected (in favor of another, or simply general negligence) so that they might drink a potion or a secondary healer might help them. But you must make sure that from where you'll be standing, the comment will reach everyone involved. The reason for the /s is that in most cases, people will be talking in party chat, and healing should stand out for anyone to see. Also, it's irrelevant to know from afar that one party member is healing another. Secondary healers should switch to healing if: * The primary healer is out of mana. The primary healer should notify the group when this happens, by typing /oom, or having a macro that says something to that effect. * The primary healer is being attacked. In this case, the group's first priority must be to pull the aggro off of the primary healer. Not only is it difficult to heal when being attacked, but if they cast more heals, it will generate more threat and make it more difficult for the group to pull the mobs off. So it is the secondary healer's job to heal them. * It is a very difficult pull and the healer cannot sustain sufficient healing per second. Working with a Healer *To assist the healer, the most important thing is to keep aggro off of them. You should pay attention to who the monsters are attacking -- if there's even a small non-elite on the healer, his healing capability will be drastically reduced. *The second most important thing is to stay in range and in line of sight. If the healer gets errors when he tries to heal you, either he has to figure out where you are and then move his character, or he will simply let you die because other people need healing more. Remember, he is watching life bars and not the world around him. *Try not to take aggro from the tanks if you dont have to, especialy if you have poor armour and little health. *Also remember that the Healer likes to occasionally gain experience, loot bodies for Cloth, and activate Quest items, just like you. Since the Healer is in back of the group, he/she has to do all these things after the battle is over, so do not simply run off looking for the next group of monsters. Also be aware that while the Healer is filling your Health bar, they're draining their Mana bar. Be considerate and allow them to recharge. *If a priest and a druid have to be working together, use mana effectively. In raids, some over-zealous priests take the challenge to heal everyone around and therefore waste mana fast, leaving the druid at almost full mana at the end of a mob. Don't let awkward situations take place, and work with him by asking the heal priority for everyone else. The druid is not as versatile in their abilities as a priest is, lacking the spells Holy Word: Shield and Resurrection and therefore cannot heal a mage or a tank as well as a priest. See Also * Elunia’s guide to getting a Priest